In our long course of practice, we have seen and experienced so much and I think till now many of us would be curious to know the depths of these specific techniques. Bhastrika Pranayama I can once again assure you that what we would uncover would truly make your even happier and healthier at least Bhastrika Pranayama.
Upon knowing the Bhastrika Pranayama practice one tends to think how, why and where regarding the practice of this immensely potent practice as we had extolled about it in our last article. And today I would begin with the very first type of Bhastrika Pranayama which again has been the result of the tireless synthesis of our ancestor sages who provided us with these gifts. The name as the title says is BHASTRIKA and once again the Sanskrit meaning of this word means BELLOWS, in short, the meaning is bellow breathing.
Bhastrika Pranayama Yoga
Bellows is a medium-sized hollows pipe through which air is blown and is used in India for lighting up fires for cooking (especially in rural villages). If you want an idea then you can consider a simple flute through which a musician forces air and rhythms of harmony arise. Similarly, like this once air is forced through a bellow a very fine continuous tune of passing air is heard. This Bhastrika pranayama derives its name from the same, now let’s see how.
You first sit down in a comfortable seated posture and remain steady while first noticing that passage of your nostrils is clear. Next, either you can keep your eyes open (if beginning) or close it so that you can only focus on the process of your breathing. Once doing that start inhaling and exhaling in a rhythm, a rhythm as per your capacity and your comfort while you do.
What happens is that once you begin inhaling and exhaling keeping in mind the rhythm your air passage from the nostrils to the lungs which is the windpipe starts acting as a bellow we identified earlier and you can hear the fine harmonious tone of the passage of air while inhaling and exhaling both.
Once you establish this rhythm you can clearly observe, feel and even contemplate your own bellow breathing, a fine continuous tone while you inhale and exhale. This tone which slowly and steadily becomes deeper and deeper as does your breathing cycle. This is the simplest pranayama technique to start with and one can progress with an enhanced number of cycles. This deep bellow breathing marks the entry of a practitioner into the practice of the pranayamas the breathing cycles go on extending more and more as the practitioner practices with utmost will and steadfastness.
There is no such precaution in this Yoga pranayama practice as it is simple, easy to understand and most easy for a practitioner to adapt and move ahead with pranayama practice. The only precaution is not overdoing or in other words, forcing or constricting your windpipe or voice box to force the bellowing sound. Once you initiate yourself into the practice the fine bellow tune as in a flute emerges within the harmony of your pranayama practice.